I recently wrote about social advertising from Microsoft, but that of course isn’t the only game in town and as Bob Leathern points out, eventually all advertising will be social. I don’t fully agree with that, but I’d argue that any good advertising is already social (you tell your friends about a funny ad) and that most online advertising in the future will be social. Even Google says that “in 2015, 75 percent of ads on the web will be “social” in nature—across dozens of formats, sites and social communities”. I’m not sure where they get 75%, but that number does feel about right.

However, this is not to be confused with display ads that appear on social networking sites. A quick poll by SmartBrief on Social Media shows that these aren’t quite mainstream yet, and that the ROI isn’t quite there either.

However, as I talk to advertisers about social media and from what I see in blogs and Twitter, advertisers certainly see the potential of social media. This will certainly be an interesting space to watch, and shape, over the next few years.

For now, I am proud to share Microsoft’s social advertising capabilities as part of our rich media display ads.